The Labor enquirer., 1887-03-05

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books to always remain the town prop
ertW Men stood Up there and opposed
the measure bittsrlF, but the bill passed
and now most people are pleased Will
II. 30 II goes with every attempt to es
tablish human freedom.
The time IL fast spproaching when ".
must demand that bread shall be free
No man can eat more than enough ant
none should be compelled to eat less
Poverty cannot ceabe until bread is q,
free - the highway. the bridges ant
the schools. And BY the same right and
power that We shall make the railroads
telegraphs, mails and food all free VI
shall also soon follow by making cloth
ing Tree; for no one will wear NOR
clothes than he requires and non,
should be obliged Ito wear less. w,
grant this much ID paupers now snt
there is no reason Thv any other people
should have less. There is no NOR,
danger Of people using more clothe,
than they need or OF eating more foot
than they need vi en- all Is fret
than there now Is Of people drinking
more water than they need.
Put price on water and many per
son would drink too much Of il. II the
drinking water was now all owned b,
private parties and one attempted to ar.
que that 1t ought u be free he would bt
told that 1t would never 3 would moi
work because then every one would
build great cisterns and gobble it all uE
and then what would the rest Of us do !
This same foolish argument is used
against making the earth free; and this
and like srgumentb are raised against
oil freedom.
While in Chicago few years ago the
son Of former STAKEHOLDER told me nc
Niger ought to be- allowed to ride on q
horse car. "Why not ~ said l. "Be.
cause" said be, "the damned. stinking
brutes are no. ct I'd ass ,ciate with wkile
people" "Your father was a slave.
holder, was hs moi ?" said l. s.Yes
what Of iii" said he. swell, when you
we're a babe YOU shcked an old wench's
breast. didn't you II" swell. what OF
it?s he replied. 1T is little strange
that you can suck an old wench's breast
and can't sit IN the same car with her
with both doors Open" | responded.
70 you be damned" said he. that is al
together another matter. That isn't as
sociating with them" mot exactly"
said !, "but when The Young lady at the
piano In the parlor is half sister to the
buck Niger out on the farm think the
power Of association is quite we'll devel.
oped among your people" The argu-
ment ended here. N.
But few days later he said to me
"The fact il. Griffin. We have all of us
got damned sight Of groundless preiu-
dice in u.s." and he WAS right.
We are all decidedly prone to oppose
all freedom IN our fellow beings that we
are not accustomed IN seting them ex-
ercise. Free land. free food; free cloth
ing. free railroads, free mails, can all be
as easily established and maintained as
free roads and free schools. and will all
increase the advah htagee, comforts and
happiness Of the common people and
reduce crime and all suffering.
The reason why the people rs whole
do not demand these advantages now is
because of ignors nee and groundless
prejudice. They are things that must
come in the near future and it is the
business Of the workers to introduce
them.
When We compare the freedom that
has been abtained with what we are
now striving for We shall see that We
are not demanding such wonderful
changes after all and hanging people
for demanding these advances looks still
more rigid. 1t is only a question of a
little more time with us and we shall
have the numbers and the organization
sufficient to accomplish our object.
But We shall lose the case II we flatter
ourselves that the opposition will melt
away like fog befoie sunshine. We are
dealing with an opposition largely made
up Of people who 90 not know what We
want and who swear We d. not; and
they wilfully refube TO listen to any of
our arguments OF read our papers or
treat us as civilized beings, and we have
got to take such people as they are and
deal with them with such stuff as they
will take notice Of.
Argument and voting will do for all
those who will listen to arguments or
obey an adverse vote. but the world is